£450
8vo, pp. vi, 120, [2, ads]. Slightly later quarter calf, brown marbled boards, spine lettered direct in gilt on a black ground, corners tipped in vellum. A touch toned, a few openings lightly soiled. Leather worn, some areas of insect damage. Armorial bookplate of Henryson-Caird and pencil ownership inscription of John Grant, Edinburgh to pastedown, the latter dated 6.xii.1965.
The scarce first British edition of Irish physician Bryan Robinson's (1680-1754) treatise on the body's input and output, which was first published in his native Dublin the previous year. The 'discharges' Robinson focusses on here are specifically sweat and urine, and he catalogues their frequency and volume in great detail, attempting to bring an explicitly Newtonian (i.e. data-driven) approach and principles to the study of human biology. Robinson is also a follower of Sanctorius, developer of the 'static chair' for weighing an individual's entire diet and elimination, and he criticises those whose obsession over one element (e.g. night-time perspiration) leads them to lose track of overall accuracy. Per ESTC, the printer William Bower's records show 759 copies were printed, and it rarely appears on the market in any edition.
